


what if i do snap? holy crap, i'd crawl out of my skin!

by nosecoffee



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alice Cooper can burn in hell, Angst, Asexual Character, Asexual Jughead Jones, Asexuality, Breakfast Club AU, Cheryl's the worst but I love her, Essays, F/F, Fluff, He could murder me and I'd say thanks, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Jason's a dick, M/M, Mountain Dew, Recreational Drug Use, Some mentions of infidelity, Weekend Detention, i love Jughead so much, little women - Freeform, some making out, some sexual themes, sone mentions of miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 10:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10511580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: "Holy shit, it's weed.""Where the fuck did Betty get weed?""You think I'd print something like that?""It's a good headline; 'New Girl Fucking Smashes Cheryl Blossom in Hallway'."Or The Breakfast Club AU we all needed





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from 'In' from Carrie the Musical
> 
> Thanks for your patience with how long it took me to post this!
> 
> Enjoy!

"Excuse me."

"Yes, Valerie, was it?"

"Veronica."

"My apologies."

"Yeah, look, I don't belong here. There's obviously been a mistake. I don't think I did anything to deserve a detention."

"No mistakes here, Miss Lodge. You've got six hours to complete the essay on why you are here. Let me know if one of you have to use the restroom."

~

There is silence in the library.

Betty glances around, before turning to look at Archie Andrews, near the front, chewing on the rubber end of his pencil.

Ew.

He's wearing his dumb letterman jacket, over what looks to be his standard thermal t-shirt. Someone ought to tell him that those are for under his shirts.

Either way, he must be freezing.

Betty's gaze shifts to the girl at the back. Veronica Lodge. She's been at this school for a week and ended up in weekend detention. Classic of the new kids. Betty wonders what it was, as she takes in the raven-haired girls pearls and pencil skirt. Weed? Booze? What could she have possibly done?

Jughead Jones is no surprise to the detention scene, Betty thinks, looking at the back of the aforementioned boys head. He's tossing grapes in the air and catching them in his mouth, to pass time, obviously making good on his promise to Weatherbee ("I know the drill, sir, and I ain't doing it.").

Betty herself isn't too familiar with weekend detentions. She honestly doesn't think she deserves it (Jason fucking had it coming), but since when hasn't she done something she was told to do?

She's trying to write this essay, but the colourful spectrum of 'what the ever-loving-fuck' in this room is distracting.

"Does anyone here have gum?" Comes a voice from the back - Veronica Lodge - and Betty huffs in frustration.

"He said don't talk." She responds, hears Jughead snort.

"Thanks, Nancy Drew. Ginger, hit me up?" Veronica doesn't seem to care, though Betty notices the way her eyes linger, even if her voice is practiced and sharp.

Archie turns hesitantly to look at her, glances at Betty and Jughead, before pointing to himself. "Me?"

Veronica rolls her eyes. "Yes, you. Got any gum? My mouth tastes vile right now, and I'm out."

Archie shakes his head.

"Hey, _Welcome to the Black Parade?"_ Jughead turns around in his chair and sits up on his table.

"Witty nicknames, one and all, but if you don't stop shouting it'll be harder to convince Weatherbee that you don't belong here." He drawls, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the door.

Veronica rolls her eyes and sits back in her chair.

"You're all a joy to be around. I can't comprehend what's kept me from detention until now."

"Common fucking sense?" Jughead suggests and Betty snorts.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Veronica agrees. She looks like she's settling in for the long haul.

Good thing too, 'cause if she didn't, she'd be back again, next weekend.

~

Jughead spends seven and a half minutes trying to meet Archie's eyes.

At first, Archie doesn't even seem to notice, but eventually he glances up and startles at Jughead's stare. It almost makes him laugh.

Archie looks up again, and holds his gaze like the macho man he is (re: pretends to be). Jughead picks up his pen, staring into Archie's eyes, and bites down on it, breaking the plastic casing between his teeth. It splinters and Archie looks horrified.

This time, Jughead does laugh, taking the remains of the pen out of his mouth.

Betty looks up and sends him a scowl that could kill a man. Thankfully, he knows Betty well enough to avoid permanent damage.

He winks. Betty rolls her eyes and looks back down at her essay.

Veronica, up the back, is tapping her pencil on the table.

She looks up, too, briefly, catches the tail-end of Jughead sticking his tongue out at Betty and frowns.

Flips him the bird, which he returns just as swiftly.  
  
It's been absolutely ages since he's had detention buddies. And now he's spoiled for choice for who to torment.  
  
The sweet, determined extracurricular, Betty Cooper? It'd only take a few strategically placed dirty jokes to drive her nuts.  
  
The conflicted, newbie athlete, Archie Andrews? Jughead knows enough about the boy to know exactly how to make his stomach curdle and blood boil in a matter of seconds.  
  
Or, the mysterious new girl, Veronica Lodge. He could spend a couple of hours pressing her buttons, figure out what she did to get herself in weekend detention in her first week.  
  
Jughead picks the latter - going with the former two would just be dull routine, anyway - and slides off the desk, striding towards the back where the raven-haired girl sits.  
  
She looks up, wearing an expression that very clearly says 'what the ever-loving-fuck do you want?'  
  
Jughead grins to himself, imagining the carnage already.

~

Archie and Betty share a look across the library as Jughead gets up and crosses over to where Veronica's sitting.  
  
They watch, unabashedly, as Jughead pulls up a chair and sits backwards on it, leaning his torso heavily on the backrest.  
  
"So," he begins, and there's that dumb, evil smirk in his voice. Archie can already taste the chaos in the roots of his teeth, the back of his throat. This cannot end well. "What'd you do to be here?" Jughead asks her.  
  
"Straight to the point, I see, _Bell Jar."_ Veronica replies, and Archie's surprised at the amount of acid in her voice. It seems almost unreal.  
  
"You don't plan on answering?" Jughead questions.  
  
Veronica appears to contemplate it for a moment. "Let's trade. You tell me why you're here, and I'll tell you why I'm here. You can go first."  
  
Jughead gives her a vaguely interested look. "I told the music teacher to stick her nose up someone else's ass. She's always been uptight, it was about time someone told her to fuck herself." Archie's not even surprised. "Your turn."  
  
Veronica taps her pencil against the desk, a sharp, calculating expression gracing her features. "Someone insulted my mother. I threw them into the locker and broke their nose."  
  
"You're the girl who hit Cheryl Blossom?" Betty asks and everyone else turns to look at her. She pinks at the cheeks and the tips of her ears.  
  
"I think that was her name, yeah." Veronica agrees.  
  
Archie barely stops himself from losing it right there. Both Blossom twins have broken noses, and now he knows where Cheryl got hers. Jason hasn't told anyone how his broke, but that's only mildly important towards the topic at hand.  
  
"What about you, jailbait?" And it takes Archie a moment to realise that she's addressing him.  
  
"Wait, why am I jailbait?" Archie protests, instead of answering.  
  
"How could you not be?" Veronica replies.  
  
"She has a point, Archie," Betty says, blushing further as the attention comes back to him.  
  
"Oh please, I've never so much as kissed a girl. I'm hardly-" his statement is cut off by Veronica's delighted grin.  
  
"'Archie'? That's an adorable name. Are all names in this town like that?" Veronica interrupts.  
  
"Well, the guy you're talking to is named 'Jughead'. Make of that what you will." Betty says, turned around fully in her chair.  
  
"'Jughead'. That's a story I've got to hear." Veronica states, giving the boy in question a once-over.  
  
"Later," Jughead promises with a wink.  
  
"I'm still confused as to why I'm jailbait." Archie announces. Veronica rolls her eyes and leans back in her chair, putting her feet up on the table."  
  
"Out of all of us if anyone was jailbait, it'd be you." She states. Archie scowls.  
  
"I feel like that's objectifying. Is it?" Betty's lips curl downwards and she cocks her head to the side.  
  
"Well, yeah." Betty agrees.  
  
Archie nods. "Look, I'm uncomfortable-"  
  
"Jailbait is usually a girl, but she's-" Jughead gestures in the vague direction of Betty, "-got too much common sense for that and you look like you don't need anyone, anyhow." Jughead tells Veronica. She gives him a pleased look.  
  
"Why is this a collective conversation we're having?" Archie asks. Betty shrugs.  
  
"Because we're a group of bored teenagers and you look like the type of person who'd accidentally end up in a promiscuous relationship with someone much older than you." She says in an almost bored voice.  
  
"I want to be offended." Archie replies.  
  
"But?" And she smiles.  
  
"You're probably right." He sighs.  
  
Veronica purses her lips at him, "You didn't answer my question. What are you in for?"  
  
"This isn't prison." Archie informs her.  
  
She huffs and blows a hair out of her face. "It could be, for all we know."  
  
Archie decides to indulge her, ignored the look Jughead shoots him. "I damaged school property."  
  
"That's it?" Veronica demands, taking her feet off the table. "There's got to be a story."  
  
Archie nods. "There is. I don't want to share it." He responds, flatly.  
  
There's a pause.  
  
"Nancy Drew-" Veronica begins.  
  
"Not. Gonna. Happen." Betty snaps and looks back down at her page.  
  
"Alright then." Veronica says, holding her hands up in surrender.  
  
They lapse into silence again, and Archie turns back towards the empty page on his desk.

~

"I say we hold a jailbreak." She says, and she says it loud, because of she's showing them how much of a queen she is, she may as well act like it. Ginger flinches. Nancy Drew does a full body sigh. James Dean rolls his eyes.  
  
"What is it with you and jail words." He asks, swiping at the bottom of his nose with his thumb. This is the third time she's seen him do it in the hour and a half she's been in this library. Must be a habit.  
  
"Maybe I like the idea of prison." Veronica replies, trying to sound sharp, but ruins it with the questioning lilt at the end of the sentence.  
  
Jughead peers at her, eyes narrowed. She breaks first looks back down at the table as he says, "I highly doubt that."  
  
"I need to pee, and I know for a fact that there are soda dispensers somewhere in this school." Veronica tells him and then gets up, brushing the skirt of her dress down. "Anyone wanna join me on my quest?"  
  
Nancy Drew (Veronica seriously hasn't heard anyone say her name so she's running on nothing here) sighs again, and turns in her seat. "I'll go. I can help you find the soda."  
  
"I don't trust anyone but Pop with my order, so I'll come along too. Just to make sure I get the right drink." Jughead announces, winking at Nancy and bounding to his feet.  
  
Ginger - Archie, honestly, adorable - gives them all wide eyed looks, as if he can't believe them (and Veronica thought Nancy was gonna be the goody-two-shoes here). "Well, I'm not staying here by myself. That's a horror movie waiting to happen." He says.  
  
"Alright then, Musketeers. Let's set off." Veronica says and begins to walk through the desks, towards the double doors of the library.  
  
"Weren't there three of them?" Archie asks, and Veronica hears Jughead sigh. (What was it with these people - this town - and sighing?)  
  
"There were three musketeers, and they were joined by a fourth." Jughead informs the redhead, catching up to Veronica. There's a disdainful, almost pained look marring his features.  
  
"Oh. Well, that's dumb." Archie states.  
  
"Think of Veronica as the fourth musketeer that contradicts the title of our book." Jughead says and she punches him in the arm.  
  
"D'you want soda or not, _Hamlet?"_ She asks, feeling mildly offended.  
  
He rolls his eyes. "Your nicknames are so original, _Elvira."  
_  
"Oh, you're good. I like you." Veronica bumps his shoulder with hers as they walk out of the library.

~

"Okay, but seriously, what is your name?" Veronica whispers and Betty jumps. They're trying to sneak through the cafeteria to get soda, and then sneak back through the locker rooms.  
  
"How can you not have heard my name?" Betty whispers back, crouching by the corner of the entrance to the cafeteria. "Weatherbee took roll as we walked in."  
  
"I hadn't had my coffee." Veronica shrugs. "I wasn't paying attention. It's a fluke that I hadn't asked until now. I've been referring to you as 'Nancy Drew' both inside my head and outside my head for ages."  
  
"Oh my god." Betty mutters, "It's Betty, okay? Betty Cooper." She looks both ways like she's a kindergartener about to cross the road, and sprints out into the openness of the cafeteria.  
  
The others follow her, with only minimal swearing, and, a few moments later, they're standing beside the soda machine.  
  
"Three bucks for a Coke, are you kidding?" Veronica mutters, looking through her purse.  
  
"Dammit, they haven't restocked the creaming soda." Betty shoots Archie a look, and he shrugs it off. "Pink isn't a gendered colour, Betty. Don't listen to the Patriarchy. Plus, I like how it tastes."  
  
Jughead puts in three dollars, punches in a number, and fishes the can of Mountain Dew from the dispenser.  
  
"Wow, I can't believe you drink that crap." Veronica says, finding the three dollars she needs.  
  
"It's for my image." Jughead responds, nonchalantly. "It tastes like someone pissed in a Sprite can, but I can live with it."  
  
_"'It's a metaphor',"_ Veronica mocks and it actually makes Jughead laugh.  
  
Betty gets her Sprite and Archie's lemon squash from the dispenser.  
  
"I wanna stop off real quick to my locker. Gotta go get something I left there," she announces as they're exiting the cafeteria.  
  
Jughead snorts, "That's ominous."  
  
"It's not a gun, if that's what you think," she replies.  
  
"Wouldn't put it past you, or your dad." He knocks their shoulders together. Betty rolls her eyes.  
  
"He got rid of his gun years ago, Juggie."  
  
"You know her dad?" Veronica butts in - literally, she shoulders in-between them and looks at both their faces.  
  
Betty scoffs. "He knows my whole family."  
  
"So you guys are close?"  
  
"Oh yeah," Betty agrees. "Jughead and I go way back. Almost as far as Jughead and Archibald, here."

Veronica casts an interested look over the two boys. "Oh really?"  
  
Jughead snorts and rolls his eyes. "Until Andrews here ditched me and our road trip, and went to join the football team."  
  
"Yeesh." Veronica says.  
  
Betty breaks open the locker and pumps her fist in the air, victoriously. She takes something in her hand and turns towards them.  
  
Betty beckons Archie towards her with a finger and when he's close enough, she grabs his waistband and shoves a sandwich bag of weed into the front of his jeans. "Buck up, Archie. Run back to the library, don't let Weatherbee see you. And if you dump it, I'll tell your dad about Valerie Brown and your old sofa."  
  
Archie looks aghast, but grabs Jughead's wrist anyway and begins sprinting down the hall.  
  
"Not all of us are athletes!" Jughead says, and then they're disappearing around the corner and it's just Veronica and Betty standing in a corridor.  
  
Betty closes the locker.  
  
"Wouldn't have picked you as the stoner type." Veronica observes.  
  
"'M not." Betty replies, glancing up either side of the corridor. "It was a gift from my sister. The thing I did that had me wound up in detention was for her. It's her thanks."  
  
They begin walking down the corridor, the opposite way than the boys went.

~

"So. Valerie Brown and your old sofa, huh?" Jughead asks as they sidle up the hall towards the library.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it." Archie huffs and Jughead rolls his eyes. Archie had been like this way, even when they were friends.  
  
"And here I thought with you being all popular and buff, you wouldn't stop talking about it." Jughead mutters. This seems to make him lose his cool and he shoves Jughead into the lockers, holds him there with his hands pressed hard into Jughead's shoulders.  
  
"Look," Archie hisses, his face contorted with anger and confusion, "you may be bitter, but you're the one who's been avoiding me."  
  
"You ditched me!" Jughead cries, struggling against his grip and pushing him away.  
  
"You were drinking." Archie states. That makes him stop cold. "I saw you drinking. I thought I might be the problem. I thought if I left you for a bit you wouldn't."  
  
"That...it only happened a few times." Jughead informs him stiffly, lying through his teeth. How many times had he seen him, breaking open a beer against the counter in the trailer? Did he know the extent of it?  
  
"I don't believe you." Archie whispers.  
  
"I..." Jughead can't look at him.  
  
"Jug..." He feels a warmth at his wrist, Archie's hand, and jerks away.  
  
"Please don't." Jughead says, starts walking again, the door to the library in sight. "And take whatever Betty put in your pants out, it looks like you've got a boner."

~

"Holy shit, it's weed."  
  
"Where the fuck did Betty get weed?"  
  
"Honestly, fuck if I know. Just leave it on a desk, and if Weatherbee sees it, tell him it's crushed oregano."  
  
"He won't believe that."  
  
"He might."

~

"What are you in for?" Veronica asks, because she's genuinely curious, and she wonders what she did for her sister that constituted weed. It's mostly the weed part that gets her.  
  
"You really wanna know?" Betty responds.  
  
"Definitely." She nods, and Betty sighs, running a hand over her smooth blonde hair. Veronica kinda wants to touch it too.  
  
"My mom's a bitch." Betty begins. It takes Veronica aback a little, but Betty keeps talking, so she doesn't have much time to dwell on it. "She's always riding me about my grades, the clubs I'm in, employment and shit. Even relationships. She does the same with my sister, Polly."  
  
"Okay." Veronica comments, noticing the way Betty's hands shake, and she curls her nails into her palms.  
  
"Polly dated Jason Blossom for about eight months. Mom didn't like it. She said he was bad news, that he'd only make Polly unhappy. Polly didn't want to believe it, and told Jason so. Jason wasn't too happy with mom. He told Polly that she couldn't let mom go around dictating her life."  
  
There's a pause.  
  
"That was around the time that Polly found out she was pregnant. Jason was so happy, it kinda healed the relationship. Mom didn't know until she had to break down the bathroom door and find Polly crying and covered in blood, because of how fast the miscarriage came on."  
  
"Oh my god." Veronica whispers.  
  
"It kinda ruined everything. Polly was hospitalised and mom blamed Jason and he was an asshole to Polly through the last month of their relationship. They broke up and he kept talking shit about her behind her back, and to my face. I lost it, and broke his nose." Veronica peers at her with what she hoped to be a sympathetic expression. She bumps their shoulders together.  
  
"Wow. You did that for your sister?"  
  
"I'd do anything for Polly." There's a seriousness to Betty's voice that assures Veronica that she would never lie about this kind of thing.  
  
"I'm an only child, so I don't know what that's like."  
  
Betty shrugs. "It's different for all families. Since mines kinda shit, Polly and I are constantly defending each other."  
  
There's a beat of silence as they walk.  
  
"We're the people who broke both Blossom's noses." Veronica says.  
  
"I was kinda expecting a suspension, but because there's literally nothing else on my record, they were lenient with me." Betty responds, looking a little relieved.  
  
"Well, I-" Veronics breaks off, abruptly, standing like a dog on point, like she's listening for something.  
  
They're about halfway to the library, so the sound of boat shoes slapping hard against the linoleum floor of the corridor is terrifying. Veronica can't risk getting caught out.  
  
Veronica shoots Betty a panicked look and Betty grabs her arm and drags her into a janitorial closet, situated conveniently beside them.

~

"I think we might have the same problem." Veronica whispers, and Betty opens her eyes, looking down at Veronica crouched on her knees on the floor.  
  
"Huh?" She responds, struck dumb by the image. Betty sees the moment Veronica realises what this looks like, watches her grin.  
  
"Our parents don't really care about us." Veronica informs her, hands sliding up Betty's legs, to the hem of Betty's skirt.  
  
"Is this really the best time to have a heart-to-heart, Veronica?" Betty whispers, and gasps quietly when Veronica's hands ruck her skirt up to her hips. She makes no move to stop her.  
  
"Listen." Veronica says, hands smooth over Betty's skin. "I'm only assuming this from what I've heard, so correct me if I'm wrong, but your parents don't give a shit about you. Just about how you make them look. They continually talk at you. They expect the best of you, yet they don't really know who you are."  
  
"Veronica-" Betty breathes as the raven-haired girl presses her lips to Betty's exposed thigh.  
  
"Mine do the opposite." Veronica continues, lips moving sluggishly against Betty, as her hands toy with the hem of her underwear. "They don't look at me. The truth is, my dad's in trouble. Real bad trouble, the serious kind. My mom's having an affair, and she knows that I know, so she pretends I'm not there, that I don't exist, that I'm invisible. She doesn't even look at me."  
  
"God, Veronica..." She presses her whole hand up between Betty's legs, no shame, no hesitation.  
  
"We're in the same boat, Betty." There's vulnerability laced through her tone, even as Weatherbee's footsteps echo louder, closer to their hiding spot. "We gotta stop rocking it. We're getting too close to the water. We need to take care of each other."  
  
Betty gasps and grabs a shelf, knuckles going white. "Why would I want to? You're a b-b-bitch." Veronica grins, teeth smooth and sleek against Betty's skin.  
  
"Get to know me, today. Give yourself a reason to care. Please. I can't be on my own, Betty. I'll go insane." And maybe the request is a little unfair, considering their position, considering the situation, and the way Weatherbee passes right by the closet without checking, making her heart rate go down.  
  
"I...o-okay. Yeah." Betty agrees and Veronica's eyes sparkle.

~

"Can we forget that part where I was a dick?" Archie asks and Jughead looks down at him, from his place on the stairwell.  
  
"Hm?" He replies, putting _Little Women_ down, pages open against the wood of the stairs, bending the spine. He watches Archie wince.  
  
"I miss you." Archie says, a strain in his voice. It's bittersweet, what Jughead thinks of that strain; so proud that he could cause that, yet at the same time so hurt that he could cause it.  
  
"Tough luck, buttercup." Jughead responds. He picks the book up again. Ignores the creak of each step as Archie walks up the stairs, and seats himself heavily beside Jughead.  
  
Archie sighs, the way a teacher does when they've explained something eighteen times and someone still doesn't get it. "Since when did you start talking like a middle-aged stay-at-home-mom?"  
  
"Since you weren't around and I had to reshape my life for myself only." Jughead lashes back, watches Archie sag from the corner of his eye. Honestly, what was he expecting?  
  
"Oh." Archie's voice is soft and dejected. It reminds him a little of before, how they used to talk in hushed whispers, lying on Archie's roof in the middle of the night. It tugs at something in his lungs, makes breathing a little harder and he rolls his eyes, deciding to indulge Archie for a moment.  
  
"So," and the word makes Archie look up, even if - technically - Jughead could care less, "you want to pretend we never had a falling out?"  
  
"Yes." The word comes out on a breath, fast, as if Jughead would try to take the opportunity back.  
  
"How do I know that you won't fuck with me again?" Jughead questions, looking at he stairs below them, wondering absently, quietly, what was taking Betty and Veronica so long?  
  
"You don't-" He cuts the sighed response off.  
  
"That's not good enough, Archie." He says, "It's just not. I fucking trusted you, and..."  
  
"Jughead-" Archie tries again.  
  
"And." Jughead repeats.  
  
"Look, I-" There's frustration in his tone now, like he wants to get a word in and it makes Jughead even more determined to not let him.  
  
"No." He snaps, and relishes the tense silence that accompanies it. Then the softness returns. "You were always the balance between us. You held the kind of fragility I could never hope to have. I could always count on you to be sensitive and understanding and everything that I wasn't. Everything but cruel. What changed?"  
  
"Everything." Archie says, bites his pink bottom lip - Jughead looks away, not even sure when he turned his head to look in the first place, much less when he started looking at Archie's lips. He puts the book to the side.  
  
"Everything isn't enough, Archie." Jughead tells him, earnest, hurt bubbling in his chest, behind his eyes.  
  
"I don't want it to be. Everything shouldn't be a reason that you can't even look at me anymore." Archie's voice sounds raw.  
  
"Everything is that reason." Jughead laughs, but there's no humour to it.  
  
"How do I change it then?" Jughead jumps when Archie's hand touches his, but ultimately relaxes into it, because how long has it been since someone's touched him like this? "How do I fix it? Tell me; I'll do it."  
  
He shivers, "I don't want you to break me again."  
  
Archie makes a noise that's almost a laugh, almost a sigh. "I thought I was supposed to be the fragile one, here."  
  
"You were." Jughead says. "Until I was fragile and you were cruel. We were supposed to balance. And we switched." It's almost too foolish to comprehend, that they could ever be so cold to each other, so jagged and broken that they couldn't even think of each other without unwanted feelings curling their ugly claws around them.  
  
"And we failed." Archie murmurs.  
  
"This isn't a level of _Mario Kart."_ Jughead mumbles.  
  
"Tell me how to fix this." The redhead whispers, clutching Jughead's hand, hard. Jughead looks up at his face. It's smooth, soft, conflicted. And there are tears. God, when did that happen? How could he let it get this far? Hurt may be his finest weapon, but it doesn't mean he relishes the results.  
  
"Try to understand that I'm different now." Jughead says, reaches hesitantly across their laps for Archie's other hand, soft and limp by his side. "So are you. Try to understand that we can't mesh the same way; the puzzle's changed, the tables turned. Try to understand. Try to be Archie, but also Archie. Don't give up everything, but don't leave me behind again."  
  
"I can do that." Archie assures him, quietly.  
  
"Can you?" Jughead grips Archie's hands tight in his, a promise, a threat, wanting to be sure that this is forever, or, at least, as long as they need each other.  
  
"Don't ask questions like that." Archie laughs, tears running and smearing along his cheeks.  
  
"But can you?" He nods, smiles a little at Jughead.  
  
"Yes." Archie scoots a little closer, pressing their sides together. His expression is almost unreadable, but his eyes are drying. "Can you be a little softer?" He questions. "Cruelty can only go so far before it gets old, before it gets tiring. Can you try to be a little nicer, lighter? For me, if anything at all?"  
  
"Archie..." It's a hard thing to promise. He wants to be better, softer, for Archie. He doesn't know if he's able.  
  
"Jug. Can you?" Archie repeats, squeezing at Jughead's hands. The hands that ache, that scratch and claw and fight, so simple in this scene they're creating for themselves. For once, his thoughts are solely of Archie.  
  
Jughead shudders out a breath and allows himself to press their foreheads together. It's a big promise, for everything, because they can't be sure that everything won't tank. He still closes his eyes and whispers, "I don't know. Will you give me time to try and give you an answer? Will you let me try again, for the time being?"  
  
"Okay." Archie whispers back, and presses in, tears wetting Jughead's cheeks as they breathe, silent, close, a little less broken than they were at the bottom of the stairs.

~

Archie sees Veronica duck through the library doors and grab the sandwich bag of weed - but Jughead doesn't.  
  
Archie sees the tell-tale smear of her lipstick, the little knots in her hair that she hasn't fixed, the way her dress is still a little rucked up at the hips.  
  
He smiles, and then blinks the scene away, because in that moment, even if Veronica's smoking weed in the hallway, Jughead's the only thing that matters.

~

"Do you think they knew we could hear every word they said?" Veronica asks, voice at a low whisper. Betty finishes rolling the blunt on her thigh and holds it up in victory.  
  
Veronica mock applauds her.  
  
"I could not tell you. I think we should give them a few minutes though." Betty responds.  
  
"What if they're kissing?" Veronica asks.  
  
Betty snorts. "Please. Archie's as straight as can be. Chances are, they'll cry a bit, do that thing where they jerk their chins up at each other like douches, and play it off."  
  
"Sure." Veronica shrugs.  
  
"Don't 'sure' me." The blonde retorts, standing up. "Archie's a footballer. It's very easy to estimate what they'll do next."  
  
"You're very wrong." She says, peeking through the doors to the library. "They're kissing. A lot. I think there's - oh, yep, that's tongue."  
  
"What?" Betty cries, pushing Veronica away. "Lemme see."  
  
Veronica's not kidding, and the fact that Betty thought she was makes it a little funnier.  
  
They're kissing in that gradual way, like hesitant and then hard, pressing closer, trying to touch as much of each other with as much of them as possible. Archie pulls Jughead into his lap, presses Jughead against the glass underneath the railing of the stairs and she has to look away.  
  
Betty shakes her head, like trying to process the information.  
  
It looks like something clicks a second later. "Actually, you know, that makes a lot of things make sense. No wonder they were both so devastated when they fell out."  
  
Veronica nods, a vaguely amused yet unimpressed look on her face. "Yeah, yeah, well done. I'm gonna stop this before they have sex in the library."  
  
She walks through the library doors without another word.

~

At lunch, silence reigns once more.  
  
A different kind, though, and Betty's not sure if that's better or worse.  
  
Considering only half an hour ago she'd let a girl she hardly knew stick her fingers up Betty's skirt, she'd be inclined to say bad, but the orgasm said otherwise.  
  
She puts the sandwich bag of weed, a little depleted now, out with her thermos of soup and bread slices and sees Jughead track it with his eyes, bite his vaguely kiss-swollen lips in moral ambiguity.  
  
His lunch is hardly surprising - take-out bag from Pop's with two burgers and a container of fries. He sips his Mountain Dew between bites, and, every time, looks down as if he'd forgotten he was drinking shit.  
  
Archie's eating a meatball sub, and every time he catches Betty watching, freezes like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar and stares back until she breaks the eye contact.  
  
Veronica's eating rice paper rolls at the back table. She doesn't seem at all fussed with the silence.  
  
Betty finishes her soup and looks around at the other three, only left with wrappers and such.  
  
It's too sad to comprehend.  
  
"Alright, come on." She says, making Archie jump. Betty picks up the blunt she made and walks over to the stacks.  
  
She hears shuffling and grind, knowing they're following after her.  
  
Betty sits down heavily against a bookshelf and watches the other three do the same, forming a strange almost-circle.  
  
"Anyone here have a lighter?" It'd certainly be dull if no one did. Jughead pulls one from his cost, wordlessly and hands it to Betty.  
  
They all watch like dogs as she lights the blunt.  
  
"Who wants to go first?"  
  
There's silence, so Betty huffs and lifts it to her lips.  
  
She coughs the first time, and passes it around, to Veronica.  
  
Veronica pushes her tongue against the inside of her cheek and takes a quick drag.  
  
"Why've you got a lighter?" Veronica asks, softly, as she passes the blunt to Archie.  
  
"It's my dad's. I stole it so he'd have to go and get a new one." Jughead replies, just as softly, like he's afraid to disturb them.  
  
Archie looks at the blunt with a conflicted expression, and then raises it to his mouth.  
  
"New game," Betty announces, a look of mischief in her eyes, "whoever has the blunt has to tell a secret."  
  
All eyes turn to Archie, who's just finished taking a drag, and he scowls at the blonde. "I don't think I like this idea."  
  
"That's not a secret, Archibald." Veronica teases. "Tell us a secret or kiss the blunt goodbye."  
  
He grimaces, takes a slow drag and says, "I got Valerie Brown off on the couch in my basement last year, and then freaked out. She left right after."  
  
Veronica bursts into giggles and Jughead follows soon after, taking the blunt from Archie. "That's not fair, I knew that." Betty protests, but no one pays her any attention.  
  
Jughead takes his time with the joint - "We get it, you vape," Veronica giggles - and grins.  
  
"My real name is Forsythe Pendleton Jones the Third."  
  
"The third?" Veronica asks, looking happily confused.  
  
"The third," he agrees, passing the blunt to Betty and leaning back against a bookcase, eyes closed.  
  
Betty frowns at the blunt, and lets it hang from the corner of her lips as she thinks on it. "When I was in the fifth grade, I had a crush on Reggie Mantle, but I was eleven, so instead of telling him how I felt, I told him he had cooties and he should go and..." She coughs on the smoke and pinks at the neck and the tips of her ears. "Well, it's not important, but he avoided me for two years, after that."  
  
Veronica spoke before taking a drag, "I lost my virginity to Yellow Submarine, by the Beatles."  
  
"The movie or the song?" Jughead asks.  
  
"The movie, although it may have been at the part when they were singing Yellow Submarine." She replies, passing it back to Archie.  
  
"I go into the hardware store and just take lots of the paint pallet cards." Jughead snorts at that, even as Archie scowls, smoke drifting from the slight amused tilt of his mouth.  
  
"I'm a huge flower nerd." Jughead admits, smiling.  
  
"I once baked 170 cookies for a bake sale that happened a month beforehand when I was half asleep and stressed out of my mind about a test." Betty sighs and takes a long drag from the joint, the end flaring a little as she inhales.  
  
"Why that specific number?" Archie inquires, eyes a little red.  
  
"It's just what I got up to before I realised the bake sale had already happened." She shrugs and passes it to Veronica.  
  
"My favourite movie is Treasure Planet." Veronica announces, giggles at Jughead's faint eye roll.  
  
"I put the milk in before the cereal." Archie says, and ignores everyone's gapes of disgust and confusion.  
  
"My sister was named after me." Jughead says.  
  
"'Forsythe the Fourth'?" Veronica teases.  
  
"Forsythia Jones. She calls herself Jellybean, or JB for short." His smile is a little sad now.  
  
"I had a pet spider for two weeks before I lost it." Betty says, seeing the way Jughead's expression goes flat with sadness.  
  
Veronica pauses, joint halfway to her lips. "My dad's in jail for embezzlement." There's a silence thick in their throats, even as Veronica passes the joint to Archie.  
  
"I once hit my dad over the head with a shovel on accident." He offers, meekly, smoke obscuring his words a little.  
  
Jughead settles in with the new theme. "My mom ran away with my sister, because she was scared that my dad might be dealing drugs."  
  
"My sister had a miscarriage a few months ago." It seems as though Betty's accepted it too.  
  
Veronica looks Archie dead in the eye, wearing an expression that warns of a bombshell about to be dropped. "My mom's having an affair with your dad." She tells him, blandly, and finishes the blunt, ashing it, and stubbing it in the carpet.  
  
"What?" Archie gapes. She doesn't look up, like she's almost embarrassed at how deadpan she's been to him.  
  
"Didn't you know? They were together in high school, and now they're sleeping together." Betty and Jughead share a look.  
  
"Oh." The redhead says, softly, and sits back against a bookcase.  
  
Veronica flushes, as if she's just realised what a bitch move that was and stands. "Think I'm getting the munchies," she mutters. "I'll be back."  
  
Betty watches her walk away, and after casting a surveying eye over the boys, follows her.

~

"Archie..." The redhead isn't looking at him. Betty's run off after Veronica.  
  
Jughead sighs and shuffles closer to him. "I'm sorry."  
  
"My dad's still married, Jug." Archie whispers. "My parents are separated, but they're still married. I can't-"  
  
Jughead looks at his face and finds it conflicted, but calm.  
  
"Fred's not a bad person." He says, in lieu of anything else to say. "If what she's saying is true, he'll either end it, or own up to your mom."  
  
Archie wipes his nose with the sleeve of his thermal top - God, isn't he freezing in that? - and shakes his head. "You don't know that, Jug."  
  
"Arch-" Jughead reaches out a hand and Archie scoots away.  
  
"I kinda just wanna nap, right now." He says in explanation, wincing as he sees Jughead's hurt expression.  
  
"Okay. Well, if you get the munchies, let me know." Jughead tells him, softly.  
  
"Yeah. Okay." Archie agrees and curls up on the floor.

~

"Archie." Jughead whispers, and shakes Archie's shoulder. "Archie, wake up, your phone chimed."  
  
**2:13 pm**  
what time do you need to be picked up?  
  
Archie sighs. "It's my dad."  
  
**2:14 pm**  
3  
  
"What does he want?" Jughead asks.  
  
"Just wants to know when he should be here." The redhead replies.  
  
His phone chimes again.  
  
**2:14 pm**  
okay!  
  
"D'you think he'll tell me?" Archie inquires. Jughead shifts and pulls Archie's head into his lap, looking thoughtful.  
  
"I couldn't tell you, Arch. I could not tell you." He responds after a few moments.  
  
Archie drops his phone and takes one of Jughead's hands. "Can I kiss you?"  
  
Jughead smiles. "No. But I'll let you buy me a burger."  
  
"Oh will you?" Archie laughs, and Jughead laughs with him, pulling Archie's hand up to his mouth, and kissing the palm, softly.  
  
"Yeah." He agrees.  
  
"It's a date." Archie states and Jughead rolls his eyes.  
  
"If you insist."  
  
"I do."

~

Betty walks in while she's cleaning up her eyes. Veronica didn't know she was going to cry today, but she considered putting waterproof mascara this morning.  
  
"Ronnie..." Betty begins but Veronica just holds up a hand and clears her throat.  
  
"I heard her - Cheryl - talking about it, and when I confronted her, she called my mom a whore, a gold digger, a slut, and I punched her in the nose." She gulps down more tears, blinks away the image of how unhappy and disappointed her mother looked when she found out what Veronica had done. "That's why I did it. Because I didn't want to believe what she was saying. I didn't want it to be true. And now I know it is."  
  
Betty places a soft hand on her arm. "Why are you telling me this?"  
  
"So you'll have the full scoop. Didn't I hear Weatherbee say you were a part of the school newspaper?" Veronica states and watches Betty blanche.  
  
"You think I'd print something like that?"  
  
"It's a good headline; _'New Girl Fucking Smashes Cheryl Blossom in Hallway'."_ Veronica almost laughs at it, herself, but Betty doesn't look too pleased.  
  
"Veronica. What can I do?" She asks.  
  
"I don't know, Betty." Veronica sighs, leaning back against the sinks. "I don't think there is anything you can do. I don't know if this is fixable. I don't know what to do even for myself."  
  
"Well," Betty has a calculating look on her face, "how about we go back to the library, and we can talk it out with the boys, see if there's anything to be done? If anyone'll know, it'll be Jughead." The idea is good, but Veronica feels too emotionally drained.  
  
"Not yet. Soon...just, for now, can you hold me?" She tells Betty.  
  
"Veronica..." Betty bites her lip and Veronica wonders why she's being so difficult about this.  
  
"Betty. Please?" She imagines she does look a little hopeless, so it must be getting harder to say no.  
  
"Alright then." Betty says, only a little reluctantly, and pulls Veronica into her arms.

~

"So, everyone else here has shared their story, for the essay, Archiekins. What did you do?" They're sitting in a weird kind of circle again, this time at the desks. Jughead's sitting on his backwards, Veronica's sitting on top of the table, Betty - studious as ever - is sitting at her desk, and Archie's lounging on his own.  
  
"I want to play music," he says in answer, and Betty hasn't wanted to hit him as hard as she wants to right now for a while.  
  
"Uh huh?" Veronica prompts, moving her hand in a 'go on' gesture.  
  
Archie frowns a little, and continues, "I've actually been practicing guitar for a while. The other day, some of the guys from the football team walked in on me trying to work out some chords. A few of 'em thought it was pretty cool, but the others started teasing me. When they left, I smashed the guitar into the wall, because I was upset."  
  
"Wow- uh, well-" Veronica doesn't seem to know what to say to that.  
  
"I know it's stupid, but we all did stupid things to end up here, right?" Archie looks around at them, and each time he meets each of their eyes, his face goes redder. "Okay, so maybe I'm the only one who did something they regret to end up here, but it doesn't change that we're all in weekend detention."  
  
Betty rolls her eyes. "Well, that's not the stupidest thing that's ever happened. Mom once caught me climbing through my window in my underwear, right after the bonfire last summer."  
  
Archie cracks up, and Jughead laughs a little. Veronica purses her lips, "My mom once cut me off while I was out clubbing with my friends and I had no way to pay for anything."  
  
"Oh my gosh," Archie says between giggles.  
  
"Someone once requested a porno at the drive-in, where I work, but I wasn't aware that it was a porno, and we had it. So I played it, and almost got fired." Jughead announces, grinning like he's won the lottery.  
  
"No." Veronica puts a hand to her mouth to silence her giggles.  
  
"See, Arch? We've all done embarrassing things. Yours just ended with you in a weekend detention with people who could be a lot worse." Betty says. Archie quirks an eyebrow and nods a little.  
  
"I guess you're right." He agrees.

~

The last hour, after Betty finishes the essay, they spend dancing to Mr. Brightside on repeat, because Jughead legitimately won't let them change it.  
  
And, obviously, they Febreeze the shit out of the library, but who even knows if it really works?  
  
Veronica says it's likely that they'll get caught, but Betty replies that she has 'a connection' to the sheriff - _very_ Nancy Drew of her - and could probably get them out of trouble if they need it.  
  
Jughead's kinda counting on that by the time the clock hits three pm.

~

The essay Betty wrote lies neatly on her desk as they all pack up, put on their coats and walk out of the library.  
  
Betty and Veronica are holding hands, and there's still some lipstick smeared on Betty's face, but none of them are saying anything, because maybe Veronica likes it that way.  
  
Jughead bumps their shoulders together and Archie wraps his hand around his elbow, pulling him a little closer.  
  
"Does this change anything?" Jughead asks, lowly as they near the entrance.  
  
"I hope so." Archie replies, and stops them, kissing him firmly on the mouth.  
  
"Even on Monday?" Jughead clarifies.  
  
"Even on Monday." Archie agrees, and they exit the school.  
  
"Your buddies won't mind?" Archie can see his dad's pick up truck from the stairs.  
  
"They're the whole reason I'm here today." He says, almost absentmindedly. He sees Veronica and Betty separate and climb into their cars.  
  
"Thank god for them, then." Archie feels Jughead pull away as they reach the bottom step.

"Hey, wait." Jughead peers at him.

"What?" He asks, and Archie can feel eyes on him.

"Will you let me help you? With the drinking thing?"

Jughead's face goes soft. "Yeah, Arch."

There's a lingering feel of the pads of their fingers brushing for a moment and then he's gone.  
  
He watches Jughead walk off towards the football field, on his way home, and shakes his head.  
  
He jumps into the cab of the pick up and sighs, putting his bag in the footwell.  
  
"How was school?" His dad asks, except, not his dad. No.  
  
Archie turns to look at the redheaded woman in the drivers seat. She smiles at him.  
  
"Mom?" Archie asks, already knowing the answer, and flings himself into her arms. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"A mother can't come see her son sometimes?" She replies and taps him on the nose with her index finger.  
  
"Considering I just got out of a weekend detention?" Archie responds, pulling away and buckling his seatbelt.  
  
Mary waves a dismissive hand and pulls out of the parking lot. "I did one of those once, wasn't that grand."  
  
"Really?" Archie responds, mind racing with her sudden appearance, the new information.  
  
"Yeah." She grins, and he tries to picture her in her teenage years from photos he'd seen.  
  
There's a pause.  
  
"Mom?" Archie thinks he sees her smile slip a bit, as if she knows what he's about to say.  
  
"Yeah, sweetie?" Mary sighs.  
  
"Tell me what you're doing here?" She shakes her head and he sinks in his seat.  
  
"I think that's a discussion that should include your father." Mary informs him in a grave tone. Archie knows exactly what it means - thinking briefly of Veronica with a blunt between her fingers, her words laced with smoke - and dreads getting home. "How about you tell me about your day?"  
  
"My day?" He repeats, looking out the passenger side window, out at the Riverdale dollhouse scenery, the same as it had always been.  
  
"Uh huh." Mary agrees.  
  
Archie sighs, "Where do I start?"

**Fin.**

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this. If you did, please feel free to leave a comment and/or kudos, and track me down on Tumblr @nose-coffee.
> 
> Big thanks to Kayden and Parker for the constant encouragement, and the constant "are you working on Breakfast Club AU?" texts I got. Big thanks to Mads (@oopsiwroteathing) for cheerleading for me.  
> Again, thanks for reading!


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